


The Gift of Life

by Omnicat



Category: Gundam Unicorn, Universal Century Gundam
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Clones, Dysfunctional Family, Ficlet, Gen, Underage Prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 16:29:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9770402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omnicat/pseuds/Omnicat
Summary: “Marie Twelve.”Oh no, not that, he clearly hates that.“Marie Two,” then?





	

**Author's Note:**

> 1) I’m sure every last word of this is contradicted in the novels, but I don’t speak Japanese, so tough tiddies, my friends.
> 
> 2) WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE PROTECT ALL THESE GODDAMN PURUS?! щ(ಥДಥщ)

"Marie Twelve."

Oh no, not that, he clearly hates that.

"Marie Two," then?

Because on second thought, she realizes her mistake; surely she isn’t the eleventh girl he has tried to replace his daughter with. Twelve is a lot. Even in Master Glemy’s pilot pool, she had been the last.

She isn’t sure how she’d feel about the number change ( _Puru_ Two had been a traitor, but her death had been... better, somehow, than all the others. _Warmer_ ), but it doesn’t matter; he hates this too.

He’s lying to himself.

Men who buy her often do.

_Are you sure you can take me, little girl? Do you like it? It’s good, isn’t it?_

"What do _you_ want to be called?"

As if it matters.

 

She doesn’t ask what number he’s really on, and she doesn’t resist the name he eventually settles on: Marida.

"If that’s going to be your only suggestion, we’ll at least make it a proper name of your own."

She doesn’t even tell him he isn’t fooling anyone.

Master Glemy is dead. Puru Twelve has lost her true purpose, so she serves any purpose. Beggar, whore, daughter – it’s all the same. She is Master Zinnerman’s daughter now, though, and he told her her whoring days are done. So they are _done_. She crushes an ensign’s wrist to make the point, and the ensign is the one who gets the boot.

It gets the point across.

Master Glemy is dead, and Puru Twelve _should_ have been, just like her sisters; but Marida Cruz has a new master.

"Don’t call me that," he says, as if she _could_ call him anything else. She lives to follow his every command, but she cannot follow this one. It’s just not how it works.

 

And Zinnerman tries to be a kind Master, but he is a fool. A blind, lying fool.

"You want to pilot that?" he asks, when he sees her staring.

The machine he gives her is not the cage Master Glemy trapped her soul in – not yet.

But it’s all the same, isn’t it?

 

It’s not. It’s not. It never is again.

A fool, yes. But a kind one.

_Thank you, Father._

 

 _You had a good death,_ Puru Two tells her, the first of them to be made and the first of them to greet her in the light. First, but not last. There is no such thing as treason here, no pain or sorrow or confusion.

 _Yes,_ Marida says, and lets their warmth envelope her like an embrace. _And a good life._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments on older fics will ALWAYS remain welcome.


End file.
